Tuesday, December 13, 2011

National Parks Tour - AZ

This was a bad weather ride. A great opportunity to check out my electric heated riding gear and rain gear. I rode for home near Wimberley, TX, along I-10 to El Paso for RON. Weather was clear but cold with a low of about 35F and high of 65F. The next morning a front was blowing up from Mexico with lots of rain. After breakfast at the motel I headed for AZ on I-10 through New Mexico. The rain was light but the interstate was soaked. Every time I passed a vehicle I rode through the spray cloud. Temperatures were in the low 40s for most of the ride out to Wilcox AZ where I turned south towards Chiricahua National Monument. Broke out of the clouds and the sun was shining bright, lifting my spirits. After collecting the passport stamp I headed back north to I-10 and continued west to just east of Tucsan. Weather turned wet and cold again as soon as I crossed over the Texas Canyon divide. Turning north off of I-10 the ride to Saguao NP was about 15 miles or so. I obtained the passport stamp and headed to a gas station for fuel and hot cup of coffee to go with my Clif Builders bar. Heading back east to El Paso the temperatures dropped to the low 30s. As I was riding back over the Texas Canyon divide snow was falling and the boulders were covered with a white dusting. Weather continued to deteriorate until I got back to El Paso for the evening. The ride home the next day was very nice as the weather had cleared up and warmed up. Check out the SpotWalla map.